


Nothing a Little Time Travel Can't Fix

by writerbot5000



Series: So You've Created a New Timeline [1]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Light Angst, Time Travel Fix-It, cliffhanger ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-01-21 08:09:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21296279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writerbot5000/pseuds/writerbot5000
Summary: The DEO is convinced that Lena is working with Leviathan, but Kara is sure she's just trying to take them down from the inside. Lena won't talk to them so Supergirl is sent back in time to gather information. Once in the past, Kara decides on a more direct approach.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Series: So You've Created a New Timeline [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1535180
Comments: 45
Kudos: 227





	Nothing a Little Time Travel Can't Fix

**Author's Note:**

> I started working on this before the premiere of Season 5 so the Supergirl reveal is handled differently here.

The instant Lena hugged her, Kara knew she couldn’t go through with Alex’s plan. The plan would prove Lena’s innocence, but it would also be a betrayal of Lena’s trust. Another betrayal of Lena’s trust. It would be the Kryptonite incident all over again. And Kara refused to repeat that mistake. 

Lena’s was still gripping Kara tightly as she said, “When you didn’t text me back last night or this morning, I was sure you didn’t want anything to do with me. Not after what my mother did.” 

In the original timeline, Kara had an unplanned trip to Earth-1 to help with the Dominators in the immediate aftermath of the Medusa incident. Kara hadn’t even gotten Lena’s messages and voicemails until she had returned to Earth-38 several days later. 

Of course, as soon as she had seen the messages, Kara had immediately rushed to Lena’s office, eager to reassure her friend that she hadn’t abandoned her. At the time, Lena had waved off Kara’s apologies, but she had also been far more reserved than usual and it felt like their friendship had taken a definite step back. It had taken several weeks of persistent thoughtfulness from Kara to get them back to where they had been before Kara’s disappearance. 

But this time, instead of days having gone by without a word, Kara was showing up for lunch the day after Lillian’s arrest, Big Belly Burger in hand. Kara hadn’t realized until that very moment how much she had hurt her friend by literally dropping off the face of the Earth at such a pivotal time. 

What made the hug even more amazing was that this was now their first hug (at least from Lena’s point-of-view). In the original timeline, it had been another couple months before they made it to the hugging stage of their friendship. And the normally reserved CEO had been the one to initiate it, running up to Kara and hugging her so quickly that if it weren’t for her super-reflexes, the bag of food Kara had been carrying would have been squished between them. 

Lena obviously needed this hug just as much as Kara did so the two women just stood there, holding each other while they cried tears of relief. This was far from their first hug for Kara, but it had been months since Kara had been able to bask in the warmth of a Lena Luthor hug. It’s something she had feared she would never get to do again. 

As much as she loved Lena hugging her, Kara was also wracked with guilt as the hug was under false pretenses. Lena didn’t know that the Kara she was hugging was from the future. And that if she followed her mission, then it would be almost like the hug will never have happened. It’s at that moment that Kara decided that she has to take advantage of this chance to fix things. For both their sakes. 

Once they finally broke the hug, gently pulling back from each other, Kara gestured to the couch. To their couch. “Can we sit? I have some stuff to tell you and… and it’s kind of a lot.” 

“Of course,” Lena agreed, wiping at her eyes as she starts regaining her composure. “Jess already cleared my meetings for the day. She figured I would need the break after everything that happened with mother last night.” 

Kara felt a twinge of guilt. This is one of the reasons she always had such a hard time telling Lena the truth. Lena always had so many things to worry about and Kara never wanted to do anything to add to that. But Kara knew firsthand there was never going to be a time a perfect time to tell Lena. She resolved to ignore that guilt and push on. 

“Okay,” Kara took a deep breath, hoping she wasn’t just about to make things worse. “So the first thing I have to tell you is that I have a secret. It’s something that I have only ever willingly shared with a couple other people before, though somehow quite a few people keep finding out anyway. You’re my best friend. And I have wanted to share this with you for like so, so long. Like longer than will make sense until we get to the other big thing I have to tell you. And I didn’t share it. Not because I didn’t trust you; but because I was scared you wouldn’t see me the same way after I told you. You were always so brave with sharing your own secrets and I should have been too and I apologize for that.” 

Kara could see the confusion on Lena’s face, probably because at this point, Lena hadn’t really shared any really big secrets with Kara yet. But Kara figured it was best that she explain the Supergirl thing before she got into the fact she was from the future. “I don’t think I’m making a lot of sense right now, so I’m just going to do this,” Kara said, before reaching up and sliding her glasses off her face. “I’m not just Kara Danvers. I’m… I’m Supergirl.”

“What?” Lena gasped, eyes wide with shock.

“I’m still Kara. I’ve always been Kara. But I actually have two last names. I was adopted by the Danvers when I first arrived here on Earth. I took their name when they took me in, but back on Krypton I was known as Kara Zor-El. 

“On Krypton, I was just an ordinary person. I couldn’t fly or shoot lasers from my eyes or do any of that stuff. I didn’t get any of my powers until I came to Earth. So even though I’m not human, Kara Danvers is a lot more me than Supergirl is.

“Once I became Supergirl, it kind of felt like Kara Danvers didn’t matter anymore. Kara Danvers couldn’t stop a plane from falling out of the sky, or rescue people from a burning building. She was a nobody. You were the one that taught me that Kara was important too. That I was important. Just regular old Kara Danvers. And I was scared I would lose that if I told you the truth.” 

Kara reached over and took Lena’s hands in her own, imploring Lena to understand. “By the time I realized that I was being selfish by not telling you the truth, it was too late. I had waited too long to tell you; there was no way to tell you without hurting you. But by not telling you I was hurting you too. I never wanted to do anything to hurt you, but I didn’t know how not to hurt you so I was like… stuck.”

Lena was silent for what felt like an eternity to Kara, but in reality it was likely on a few seconds. Finally she opened her mouth to speak. “I’m glad you told me,” Lena admitted, squeezing Kara’s hand. “You didn’t wait too long. We’ve only known each other for a few months, Kara. This isn’t the kind of thing you tell someone the first week you meet them, especially not someone with my last name.” 

“It was never about that!” Kara protested. If there was one thing she needed Lena to understand it was that she trusted Lena completely. It didn’t matter if her last name was Luthor or Smith.

“I wouldn’t blame you if it was,” Lena shrugged. “I’m used to people lumping me in with the rest of my family.” 

“I would never do that. I know I haven’t really had the chance to prove it to you yet, but I promise you that you’re always just Lena to me. Well, there is this one time I’m kind of a jerk about it, but… well, that’s a long story.” 

“You keep saying things like that, Kara.” 

“I suppose I should explain,” Kara answered. “This is where it gets complicated. The thing is, I’m not just Supergirl. I’m Supergirl from the future. From 2019 to be exact. Not before. Just today. Every other time you’ve seen me it’s been 2016 me. But right now, 2016 me is in parallel universe helping the heroes of Earth-1 stop an alien invasion. That’s why she didn’t text you back this morning. AT&T doesn’t work across the multiverse.”

“So you’re telling me that the multiverse is real and you have a time machine?” Lena asked, arching an eyebrow. 

“I know it’s a lot to take in, but there’s a reason I was sent back to this specific day when we knew that other me wouldn’t be here.” 

“Oh, you’ve come from the future to kill me?” Lena joked, seeming to accept the whole time travel thing with surprising ease. When Kara didn’t laugh, her face fell, “Shit, that’s it, isn’t it? I become a supervillain in the future so you have to stop me now.” Because of course Lena would assume she was the one who had fallen. 

“No!” Kara rushed to reassure. “Okay, well... sort of? Not that I’m here to kill you!” Kara hurried to add. “You are my best friend. You’ll always be my best friend. Even if you had gone full supervillain, I’d never be able to fight you, let alone… hurt you. But I wasn’t sent here to fight you. I was sent her to spy on you. Which I’m very much refusing to do.” 

Kara pulled out a small disc out of her pocket, displaying it for Lena to see. The device was a couple inches in diameter and about half-an-inch thick with a large button on top of it. “Once I got to your office, I was supposed to turn this on. It’s a device Brainy designed that would be able to hack into your network and install software that would let us monitor your system once I went back to 2019.” 

“I don’t know who this ‘Brainy’ is, but I assure you, our network is impenetrable.”

“He’s very smart,” Kara explained. “Plus he’s from about a thousand years in the future. And apparently he helped you make some upgrades to your system in 2018 so he knows about some exploits he could take advantage now.” 

Kara pulled out another device, a memory flasher. “And then I’m supposed to use this device we borrowed from the Time Bureau to wipe your short-term memory so you don’t remember that I was here today.” That had been another reason Kara couldn’t go through with the plan. Now that she knew how much Lena needed her to be here today, taking that memory would be causing Lena more pain. She had done that enough already. 

Kara crushed both the objects in her hands, the plastic remnants falling to the floor. “That’s not going to happen though.” 

“If I’m still your best friend, why would you help someone spy on me?” Lena asked, the hurt clear in her voice. 

“The DEO uncovered evidence that you are working with the new evil on the scene, a shadowy group that calls itself Leviathan. I pointed out that it wouldn’t be the first time you pretended to side with an evil organization so you could thwart their plans, but Alex was all ‘We can’t trust her, Kara’ and I was all, ‘shut up, Alex.’ There was a lot of arguing and eventually Brainy suggested that we could hack your system to find out the truth.

“Except, well, you would never let any of us in to your office in my time and you had bulked up your network security so we couldn’t get in remotely. Brainy built a time machine so that I could go back to when your security was a little laxer. And it was decided this week would be the best time since the other me is off on Earth-1. I agreed to do it, but only prove what I already knew; that you were just trying to stop Leviathan.” 

“Why wouldn’t I let any of you into my office?” 

Even though she knew the question was coming, Kara did her best to hide her flinch. It felt so good to have Lena look at her as a friend again. She had barely even blinked at the Supergirl reveal. Kara was terrified that she might lose Lena all over again when she told her the rest of the story. If she really wanted to fix things though, she knew complete honesty was her only option.

“I never got the chance to tell you my secret,” Kara admitted. “The Supergirl one. I kept telling myself I should, but I just kept putting it off. I only ever managed to really work up the courage once. I was so scared that you would hate me, but I knew it wasn’t fair for me to keep hiding my identity from you; not when you had shared secret after secret with me. I took off my glasses, did the whole Supergirl pose thing and I started to tell you. But you were distracted and you turned away, fixing yourself a drink. You started talking about how everyone in your life had always betrayed you and how I was the one person in your life who was always honest with you. And how much you needed that.”

“And so you chickened out?” 

Kara sighed, “Maybe, I did. But the idea of having to betray your trust right after you told me how much you relied on me was just… I couldn’t do that to you. Maybe I should have, but I couldn’t. I put my glasses back on before you turned around and did my best to pretend everything was normal. But I did make a promise to myself that I would tell you once we had managed to stop Lex.”

“Lex gets out?” Lena asked, voice rising in alarm.

“Oh, yeah, I suppose I should have led with that,” Kara winced. “Okay, so by 2019 you are experimenting with a substance called Harun-El. It’s highly volatile, but also has some amazing healing properties. None of us knew it at the time, but Lex had his own plans for the Harun-El serum, but he needed you to perfect it first. He knew you would never help him normally so he gave himself cancer so that you’d take pity on him and try to save his life. The whole thing was a trick though, and once you perfected the formula, he stole it from you, broke out of prison and went on a rampage.”

“But we stop him, right?” 

“We do,” Kara confirmed. “But because he’s a complete jerkface, his final act is to tell you that I’m Supergirl. I wasn’t there, but apparently he told you that I had been just using you for all these years. That… that I never really cared about you. And because I had been such a coward, you believed him.

“In 2019, you are mad at me. So mad. And I don’t blame you. I lied to you for years. I should have told you but I didn’t.” That was one of the worst parts. Kara had had so many chances to come clean. And she knew that Lex knew her secret. She should have known he would use her secret to hurt Lena. 

“I’ve been trying to make it up to you, but how do you make it up to someone you hurt so badly? You accuse me of betraying you. You push me away. You push Alex away. And all of our other friends. And at some point you apparently start working with Leviathan. Alex thinks you are working with them for real, but that’s bullshit.”

“How can you be so sure? It sounds to me like I’m destined to turn out just like the rest of my family.” Lena sounds so defeated as she says it. Like she’s always known she would be consumed by darkness sooner or later.

“Lena, no!” Kara protested. “Future you doesn’t like me very much right now; she... she might even hate me.” Kara hoped that wasn’t the case, but it was hard to know when Lena wouldn’t even talk to her. “But you… you are a good person, Lena Luthor. I know you don’t always think so, but you are strong. So strong. No matter what life throws at you, you always try to do the right thing.” This was far from the first time they had this conversation (though it was the first time for this Lena). 

Lena had an unfortunate tendency to think the worst of herself. In the future, before everything had gone wrong between them, the CEO had confided that Kara’s unwavering support had done a lot to help Lena realize that she wasn’t destined for some dark fate. As much as she loved getting to speak with a version of her friend that wanted to see her, this Lena was still dealing with the self-doubt and self-hatred that future Lena had worked so hard to overcome. 

“I know things between us aren’t so great in 2019, but you have proven yourself again and again to the people of National City and the world. L-Corp is stronger than ever and you’ve done a lot to really help people.”

“Should you be telling me all this?” 

“I don’t want their to be any secrets between us. Secrets have only ever caused us pain.” 

“I appreciate that, darling. I do,” Lena replied. “But I meant more aren’t you risking messing up the timeline by telling me all this?”

“I already changed the timeline as soon as I came into your office” Kara admitted. “In the original timeline, I didn’t get back to Earth-38, that’s our Earth by the way, for a few more days yet. I came to see you as soon as I saw your texts. I apologized for not being around, but you just waved off my excuse and told me not to worry about it. That you were so busy you barely noticed I hadn’t had a chance to get back to you.” 

“That sounds like something I would say.” 

“I guess I wasn’t fluent in Lena yet back then; I never realized how scared you were that I was going to abandon you. You definitely didn’t practically tackle me with a bearhug before” 

“So because I hugged you we changed the future?” 

“Probably,” Kara shrugged. “It’s hard to know with time-travel. I can say that in the original timeline, it took a lot longer for us to get to the point that you were comfortable enough to hug me. Knowing you, you probably convinced yourself that you didn’t really need me when I was a no-show. So it wasn’t until you were framed for helping your mother escape from prison that I was able to prove to you that I would be there for you. And obviously I didn’t confess to being Supergirl or being from the future in my original visit either.”

“So what now?” Lena asked.

“Well, I don’t really have a plan,” she admitted, a little sheepish. “I know that before I really hurt you by hiding my identity for so long. And well, at the very least that shouldn’t happen now. It’s hard to know what changing the past will do. Sometimes, even a tiny change can drastically alter the future; other times, it seems like no matter how much you try, the future is set in stone. And then there are the predestination paradoxes where the only reason the thing you are trying to stop happens is because you went back in time to stop it. Time travel isn’t really an exact science. You think it would be, but nope. You never really know what’s going to happen when you try.” 

“Darling, you are rambling,” Lena chided, but the gentle smile showed there was no bite in her admonishment. 

“Right, sorry. The bottom-line is I don’t know what’s going to happen. But if I have a chance to fix my deepest regret and spare us both a lot of pain, it’d be foolish not to try, right?”  
“Your deepest regret?” 

“I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life,” Kara explained. “Supergirl isn’t supposed to make mistakes, but Supergirl is what I do. Kara, whether Danvers or Zor-El, is just a person. And she makes mistakes just like anyone. But of the many mistakes I have made since I became Supergirl, none have haunted me the way that hiding my secret from you has. Even before you found out from Lex, I used to feel so guilty about lying to you. And then to have you find out the way you did… You shouldn’t have had to go through that, and it’s my fault that you did.” 

“You couldn’t have known what would happen? Seeing the future isn’t one of your powers, right?” 

“No,” Kara admitted. She looked down at her feet, unable to meet Lena’s gaze. “But I knew that Lex had figured out that I was Supergirl. I should have wondered why he hadn’t tried to use my identity against me. I should have realized he’d be saving it for when it would hurt the most.” 

Kara almost jumped when she felt Lena put a hand on her shoulder. “My brother is good at that. Manipulating people. Hurting people. It’s what he does. Yes, you should have told me sooner, but it sounds like he managed to get in my head. Played on my insecurities.” 

“You’re not mad at me?” Kara asked. 

“You made a mistake. But you’re only… well, I was about to say you’re only human, but I guess that applies to other species too. I think the sentiment stands though. You made a mistake, but you’re trying to make up for it; that’s all any of us can do.” 

Kara couldn’t help but smile at Lena’s reaction. “What do you say, Miss Luthor, ready to rewrite the future?” 

For the next two days, Kara told Lena everything she could think of about the next three years. She started out with the big threats, starting with Lillian breaking out, framing and then later kidnapping Lena in the process, moving on to the Daxamite invasion and then to dealing with Reign, the rise of the Children of Liberty, Red Daughter, Lex’s nefarious plot and the rumors they had heard about Leviathan. 

They then moved on to discussing more minor villains and threats that they faced over the following years, along with developments in their personal lives. By the end, Kara was down to recommending movies and TV shows Lena absolutely had to see as soon as they came out. 

Through it all, Kara did her best to give Lena the unvarnished truth (as best she knew it), even, or perhaps especially, when events painted Kara in a bad light. 

The worst was when she had to admit how she let her fears get the best of her and let herself doubt Lena during the whole Kryptonite fallout with Reign, but Kara was through hiding from Lena. This version of Lena hadn’t felt the string of Kara’s betrayal though. She was surprisingly understanding about even Kara’s worst blunders. 

It wasn’t quite the same as spending time with the Lena of her time. The hurt and anger were missing, of course. But there were so many wonderful experiences they just hadn’t had yet. At this point in history, their friendship had been mostly limited to lunches and texting. She hadn’t introduced Lena to the rest of her friends. There hadn’t been any game nights, no weekly brunches. They hadn’t worked together to save the world yet. Kara told Lena about these experiences, but it wasn’t the same as having lived them. So she missed her Lena. But at the same time, just having Lena look at her with a smile was such an amazing experience she almost wanted to just stay in 2016. 

Kara knew that she couldn’t do that though. Soon her past self would be returning to Earth-38. And, after getting cleared by the DEO, past Kara’s first stop would be to check on Lena. And Kara had seen enough time travel movies to know that running into your past self was almost always a bad idea. And even if she having two Karas around didn’t tear a hole in the fabric of the universe, it would still be super awkward. 

So instead on the morning of past Kara’s return, 2019 Kara sighed and said to Lena, “Okay, I think that’s everything. I should probably be getting back to the future now.”

“So what happens now?” Lena asked. 

“Well, I go back to the future. And in a few hours the other me will come back to our Earth.”

“Should I tell her what you’ve told me?” 

“I’m leaving that up to you,” Kara confided. She had debated going to the DEO and bringing Alex, J’onn and Winn up to speed, or even just leaving a note for her past self. Ultimately though, she decided to leave it up to Lena to decide what to do. Kara had complete faith in her best friend. What better way to prove that than to leave the future in her hands. “I want it to be your decision. But I hope you’ll at least think about telling past me. When the two of you work together, there’s nothing you can’t do.”

“Will she believe me?” Lena asked. Normally Kara would chalk this question up to Lena’s tendency to think poorly of herself. To think that everyone is just waiting to think the worst of her and that she’s got some sinister secret agenda. In this case though, it was a valid concern. If past Kara didn’t believe her, she could go to the DEO. And the DEO would definitely assume the whole thing was a nefarious Luthor plot. 

Kara pulled out her cellphone. “Here, take my phone. I have like thousands of photos on there that should prove you are telling the truth.” 

“I don’t want to take your photos from you,” Lena said, pushing the phone back towards Kara. 

“I have my phones set to sync to the cloud,” Kara answered, gently placing the phone back in Lena’s hands. “Between my super-strength and all the fights I get into, I usually need a phone every few weeks. I already took the SIM card out before I came here and set it to airplane mode. You’ll want to keep it that way. The DEO will definitely think something is up if there’s suddenly a second Supergirl cellphone connecting to their network.” 

“Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind,” Lena said.

“She wants to tell you about her secret. All her life she’s been told that it’s not safe to tell people that she’s an alien. And ever since she started working with the DEO, there are even more people telling her that she has to hide who she is. But today is the first time she almost tells you anyway.”

Kara could still vividly remember the day she came back from Earth-1. She had been on an adrenaline high after saving a whole world. She had gone to the DEO. Alex had insisted she get checked out to make sure there were no ill-effects from her trip. While she had been getting cleared, Kara had regaled Alex, Winn and J’onn with her adventures. She had been practically buzzing with excitement. 

Kara’s phone had been dead when she first got back (the power adapter for her phone hadn’t existed on Earth-1) and so she had plugged it in to charge. When she had finally turned it on, she wasn’t surprised her notifications were pinging. But when she realized how many of them were from Lena, her heart had fallen. Poor Lena had been left all alone while she was off saving another Earth. 

“I felt like such a terrible friend when I got back from Earth-1. You had just saved all the aliens of National City, helping get your own mom arrested in the process. You needed me. And I just literally dropped off the face of the Earth for days.”  
Lena just laughed, “I’d say that stopping an alien invasion is a pretty good excuse.” 

“It is,” Kara allowed. “But that was Supergirl’s excuse. Kara Danvers didn’t have a reason to ghost her best friend when she needed her the most. When you are Supergirl, sometimes you have to miss lunches, or bail in the middle of game night, or disappear to another universe at a moment’s notice.”

Up until that point, Kara had been able to easily excuse keeping Lena in the dark. They had only known each other for a few months, and it wasn’t like Kara went and told just anyone her secret. But her return from Earth-1 was the start of a years-long mental battle with herself. A combination of guilt, fear, self-doubt and selfishly wanting one friend where she could just be Kara that allowed her to keep hiding her secret even as the good reasons for keeping quiet fell by the wayside on by one and the good reasons for telling Lena kept piling up. 

“She wants to tell you so bad; if you give her a little push, she will.”

“Isn’t using insider information kind of taking advantage of her? Of you?” 

Kara tilted her head, contemplating. “Probably? But trust me, she’ll be much happier if she can be honest with you.”  
The alarm Kara had set on her watch began to beep. “Looks like it is time for me to go back… to the future!” 

Lena chuckled, “You’ve been waiting all week to say that, haven’t you?” 

“Maybe…” 

“One more hug for the road,” Lena offered, already holding her arms open. 

“Yes, please,” Kara answered, sinking into her best friend’s embrace. She had done her best to change the future for the better, but there were no guarantees with time travel. As much as she hated the thought, this might well be the last time she would get to hug Lena so she was going to cherish it.. 

“Good luck,” Lena breathed out several moments later as they ended the hug. 

“Thanks… um, good luck to you too.” Kara really hoped that with the information she had shared, they would be able to alter the future. Or, at the very least, she had been able to spare Lena some pain. 

Kara gave one last wave to the past version of her best friend and pushed the button on her watch to activate the portal. A swirling portal sprang into existence in front of her. Kara took a deep breath and then stepped through. 

A moment later, she emerged on the other side. She had left 2016 a little after 10 in the morning, but it was night back in 2019. The bright sunny day she had left was replaced with a dark, moonlit night. She was also no longer in Lena’s office. Instead she was flying through the air. Kara may have crashed into a tree as she struggled with the momentary disorientation. 

As she picked the leaves and twigs out of her hair, Kara couldn’t help but cheer. It had worked! The device should have returned her to the DEO labs just moments after she had left. If the timeline hadn’t changed, she would have found herself right back in the lab. The very fact that her future self had been doing something else proved that at least some things had been changed. 

Of course, Kara didn’t know just what had changed or how much she had changed. From her vantage point, the city looked the same as she remembered so at the very least she hadn’t triggered an apocalypse with her meddling. 

Realizing she was in a park not that far from L-Corp, Kara decided that Lena’s office would be her first stop. An instant later she was hovering outside Lena’s window. She was disappointed to find the office in darkness. It was definitely still Lena’s office, but there was no sign of the CEO. Though that’s when she realized she was actually looking into Lena’s office. 

After their blow-out, Lena had developed a low-level sonic device and some sort of energy field that prevented Kara from being able to actually see or hear anything within the building. Now though Kara was able to see into the building just fine and, with a quick check, she realized she could also hear a couple of security guards chatting in the lobby downstairs. 

Kara let out a sob of relief. Lena hadn’t shut her out in this new timeline. That didn’t prove that they were still friends, but at the very least this Lena didn’t feel the need to take drastic steps to keep Kara away. Now Kara had to just find her. 

Kara’s next stop was an obvious one; she had to go to Lena’s penthouse. When she arrived she saw that not only were there lights on, but the balcony door was open. That was probably a good sign, right? It was definitely still Lena’s penthouse too; she could hear Lena’s familiar heartbeat beating steadily from somewhere inside. 

Setting down gently on the balcony, Kara had a moment of hesitation. For the last few days, she had been filled with hope. Hope that everything would be okay and that Lena would be her best friend again. All the signs so far had been encouraging ones, but what if she was wrong? What if Lena still didn’t want to talk to her? Or what if she wasn’t mad, but she decided they were better off keeping their relationship professional? The idea of Lena not thinking of Kara as her best friend made the Kryptonian’s heart drop. 

Kara was so lost in her fears that she didn’t realize that Lena’s heartbeat was getting closer until suddenly Lena was in front of her, “Darling, what are you doing just standing out on the balcony?” 

“Lena!” Kara jumped, both because she was startled by her sudden presence and because of the warm tone with which she had greeted her. Lena still called her ‘darling.’ Lena wasn’t mad at her!

This time it was Kara rushing to hug her best friend. She wrapped her arms around her best friend, lifting the woman several inches off the ground as she laughed. 

“Kara! Put me down!” Lena protested, laughing all the while. 

Kara did as asked and gently placed her best friend back on the ground, though she held the hug for several more seconds. Lena seemed perfectly content to return the hug. Kara couldn’t have been happier. She had her best friend back!

When Kara finally pulled away, she realized Lena must have just gotten out of the shower. The CEO was clad only in a robe and in the exuberance of their hug, it must have come partially undone. “Lena!” Kara eeped as she fought the urge to look down. “Your umm… your robe…” 

Lena just smirked, “It’s nothing you haven’t seen before, Kara.” 

“What?” Kara gasped. 

Lena laughed and opened her mouth to retort, but then she closed it again. The smile slowly fell from Lena’s face, replaced with growing sadness. “It happened, didn’t it? You’re her.” 

“Of course I’m me, Lena,” Kara protested in confusion. 

“Did you… did you just get back from 2016?” Lena asked though from the look on her face, it was clear that she already knew the answer. 

“Yeah,” Kara responded feeling like she was missing something. “It worked though, right? You’re still my best friend?” 

Kara felt alarm as she saw her tears welling up in Lena’s eyes. She sighed heavily before answering, “Yeah, Kara. It worked. We changed the future. We… we changed a lot. We weren’t sure exactly when you would be back, but we knew it would be soon. You… you recorded a video for yourself. It should explain everything.” 

Lena was saying the words Kara wanted to hear, but she was also clearly upset. Lena was clearly struggling to maintain her composure and her voice had cracked when she spoke. Something wasn’t right. “Lena, what aren’t you telling me? Did something bad happen? Oh Rao, did someone die?” 

“No, nobody died or anything like that. Changing the future worked better than we could have possibly imagined. It’s just… it’ll be easier if you explain it to yourself. On the shelf by the TV, there’s a DVD case with a ‘Play me’ post-it note. It will explain everything. Just… can you wait until I leave to play it? I’m going to spend the night at Alex’s.” Before waiting for an answer, Lena was rushing back inside, heading towards her bedroom. 

“Leave?” Kara furrowed her brows. She followed Lena inside and called out, “Lena, this is your apartment. I can just take the disc and go back to my place. You don’t have to leave.” As much as she wanted Lena to tell her what was going on, to reassure her that everything would be okay, it was clear that just being around Kara was upsetting Lena for some reason.

The bedroom door was closed but less than a minute later, Lena re-emerged, wearing what appeared to be some hastily thrown on sweats, and... was that Kara’s UNC sweater? 

“This is your apartment too,” Lena explained. Before Kara could say anything further, “I’m sorry, I can’t stay here tonight. I know you will have questions, but we can talk in the morning, once you’ve had a chance to process.” 

“Did I do something wrong?” Kara asked. Somehow she had managed to hurt Lena all over again. She hated it and wanted nothing more than to have the happy, laughing Lena back. The one that was in her arms just a few minutes ago. 

Lena sighed and even though she was now crying she reached over and gave Kara a quick hug. “No, Kara. You didn’t do anything wrong. You did a good thing. It’s… it’s just hard right now. Sorry, I really have to go. The video will explain everything,” With that, Lena rushed out the door without looking back. 

Kara wanted to go after Lena. Lena had been clearly struggling to keep herself together; Kara hated to see Lena suffer. But it seemed like Kara herself was the cause of the suffering somehow, no matter what Lena said to the contrary. She held herself back from going after her best friend and hoped that Alex would be able to help. 

No sooner had Kara hoped that Alex would be able to comfort Lena then Kara had another thought. Just how close were Alex and Lena in this new timeline? They had been good friends before Kara’s secret being revealed had lead to Lena isolating herself, but she wouldn’t have expected Lena to be close enough to Alex that she would spend the night. Maybe Lena and Alex together in this new timeline? For some reason, Kara’s heart clenched at the thought. Which was silly. Alex and Lena were the two most important people in Kara’s life. If they could make each other happy, she should be happy for them, right? 

Resolving to put the strange feeling she felt at the idea of Alex and Lena dating aside, Kara walked over to the entertainment centre in Lena’s living room. As she walked, she realized the truth of what Lena had said; it was clear that this was her apartment too. One of her easels was set up in the corner of the living room, a favorite blanket was on the back of the couch, and the whole room was a mixture of things she recognized as hers and Lena’s. 

Clearly at some point in the last three years, they had become roommates. Kara wasn’t sure why they would be living together. It’s not like Lena would need to save money by splitting her rent (or that Kara could afford to pay half the rent on a massive penthouse apartment on her CatCo salary). Was Lena’s life in danger so often in this new timeline that Kara had moved in to keep her safe? She was supposed to be making things better by doing this, but it certainly seemed like Kara had made a mess of things somehow. 

Each moment spent in this new reality was just bringing up more questions. With Lena having practically run out of the apartment the second she realized it was a different Kara, the best source of answers was the disc the other her had left for her. 

With some trepidation, Kara put the disc in the BluRay player, sat down on the couch and pressed play on the BluRay remote. She was greeted by an image of herself sitting on the very couch that she now sat. This version of Kara was smiling and waving, “Hi, Kara! I’m sure Lena already told you this, but everything is okay. Gosh, it’s more than okay. I’d say it’s pretty freaking great really! I haven’t lived the same last three years as you have, but from what you told Lena, I can pretty safely say that changing history was 100% for the better. Well, really more like 97% for the better, but still that’s pretty great!”

The Kara on the video picked up a large photo album from the coffee table and placed it on her lap. “Now, Lena will be able to tell you pretty much everything that has happened over the last few years, and I made sure to keep even more detailed diaries than I used to and since you are me, you can read my diaries, but I figure you’ll want to know the highlights first.”

On-screen Kara flipped open the photo album, turning to a page somewhere in the middle. “Okay, so first of all, I have to thank you for encouraging Lena to encourage me to open up about the whole Supergirl thing. I ended up telling her on my first day back from Earth-1. Then she told me all about your visit and the secrets you had shared with her. Lena told me about how you were afraid that telling Lena the truth might ruin your friendship, but being able to be fully open with Lena was like... so amazing. Our friendship quickly grew a lot stronger after that and well…” the other Kara paused, seemingly only to build the dramatic tension. “We got married last December!” 

As she said the words, on-screen Kara flipped around the photo album, holding it up to the camera to show a photo of Kara and Lena. It was a close-up photo of the two women kissing at, what must have been there wedding judging from their attire. The Lena in the photo had a hand in Kara’s hair and on her wrist Kara saw that she was wearing a Kryptonian bonding bracelet!

The photo was lowered and on-screen Kara was visible again. “I’m guessing you are probably freaking out a bit right now. From what you told Lena, you two were only friends in the original timeline so I’m guessing this probably comes as a bit of a surprise.” She wasn’t wrong. While Kara was in the past, she had spent a lot of time wondering what future she might come back to. A lot of that time had been spent hoping that she had managed to repair her relationship with her best friend, but she never imagined that she’s come back to find she was Mrs. Luthor. Or maybe Lena had changed her name. Or they could have hyphenated. Maybe she was Luthor-Danvers? Or Danvers-Luthor?

“But you must love her too, right?” On-screen Kara asked, oblivious to Kara’s thoughts. This would have been much easier if they had a holographic Kara. “I mean, you were willing to risk blowing up the timeline for her. That’s gotta mean something.” Lena is her best friend. Of course, Kara would do anything to make her happy. But that didn’t mean she had feelings for her, right?

“Lots of other things are different too. Thanks to the information you provided us, we were able to stop the Worldkillers a lot sooner. We even managed to save Grace and Julia and not just Sam. We still had to use Harun-El to do it though. And during the fight, some of it got splashed on me. Thankfully though, we were prepared for that possibility.” 

The on-screen Kara flipped to another page of the album before turning it around, “Kara meet Lara.” The picture being held up to the camera now was of Alex, Kara and, apparently, Lara, on the couch Kara recognized from her old apartment. Lara must have been this reality’s version of Red Daughter as she looked identical to Kara other than the fact she had dyed her hair brown. Alex was rolling her eyes while Kara and Lara were tossing popcorn in the air, presumably trying to catch it in their open mouths. 

“We were able to get to her before the Kaznians did, and she’s never even met Lex Luthor. Oh! We moved Lex to a special DEO prison and he hasn’t been able to escape so far. So fingers crossed on that one!” On-screen Kara held up a hand, crossing her fingers. 

“Let me tell you, it was a little strange suddenly having a little sister. She had trouble controlling her powers at first, and she didn’t know anything about Earth, of course. I kind of know what Alex went through when we came to Earth now. Lara’s really sweet though. Which is why we were all a little surprised when she started dating Livewire!”

In the video, the next page of the photo album was displayed revealing a photo of Lara and Livewire, taking a selfie. Lara is laughing and kissing Leslie’s cheek. Leslie is trying to glare at the camera, but she’s clearly fighting a blush. “We were all a little worried at first, but you have to admit they make an adorable couple.” 

“Oh, here’s another important one,” Kara continued, flipping to a new page, this time to reveal what appeared to be a family Christmas photo. Alex and Maggie were decked out in hideous Christmas sweaters, and between them were a couple of blue alien children, all four were beaming. “Alex and Maggie ended up taking in a couple of Brivuxian orphans about a year into the new timeline. So you have nieces now! This is Quonlaka,” Kara said, tapping her finger on the girl on the left, “and this is Nize,” Kara tapped the slightly older girl on the right. 

“I know in the original timeline, Alex and Maggie didn’t last. I actually wanted to warn Alex about that. You know, try and spare her future heartbreak. But she and Maggie had only just got together when I found everything out. Alex was so happy and it seemed cruel to take that away from her, so I decided it was best to just let things play out. But well, obviously things worked out a little differently here,” As if to emphasize her point, on-screen Kara held up another photo, this of another wedding, Alex and Maggie’s. “There are lots of details in my journal, but really you should just talk to Alex and Maggie; they’ll be happy to tell you all about it.”

The on-screen Kara looked back at the book, flipping towards the back of the book, apparently looking for something more recent. “Knowing you, because, well you are me, or at least a version of me, you are probably wondering about what Kelly and Alex. Obviously they have never dated in this timeline, but Kelly did just move to National City with her fiance. And you’ll never guess who her fiance is!” The pre-recorded Kara flipped the album around once more, this time revealing a group shot from a game night at Lena’s… at their apartment. Everyone appeared to be in the middle of a game of Settlers of Catan and curled up with Kelly on one of the loveseats was none other than Lucy Lane! “It’s Lucy!” On-screen Kara added unnecessarily. 

“Who would have guessed, huh? You’d think it would be kind of awkward or something since James and Lucy used to be engaged, but as far as I know it’s never been an issue. I think even James can see how good they are for each other.” 

On-screen Kara leaned closer to the camera, dropping her voice to a whisper. “Lena and I decided it would be best not to tell anyone else that Kelly and Alex got together in the original timeline. Everyone gets along so well now; Kelly and Maggie are really good friends, and you know how close Alex and Lucy have always been. We didn’t want to risk creating unnecessary drama. So maybe keep that bit of information to yourself.”  
The video went on for some time, the pre-recorded Kara giving a pretty thorough summary of the major events of the last few years telling Kara what had changed, what had stayed the same and what was entirely new. Kara had hoped that the knowledge she had shared with Lena might help, but even she was surprised at how much had changed. 

In this new timeline, Kara and Mon-El had never dated. Mon-El, upon hearing the fate that would befall his people, had chosen to leave the Earth when his parents came calling and the last they had heard, he was leading a rebellion to try and bring democracy to the Daxamites. 

And since Mon-El left with the Daxamites, not only was there no Daxamite invasion, but he had never ended up traveling to the future. Brainy and Imra had still traveled from the future to help stop the Worldkillers, but they had brought another member of the Legion with them, Dawnstar. She and Imra had already gone back to the future though so Kara wouldn’t get the chance to meet her. 

There had been some other changes on the villain front too. With Lex safely isolated, there hadn’t been anyone to push the Children of Liberty into prominence. Their movement never gained any real momentum and they were just another far-right fringe group on the internet that most people had never heard of. 

Though apparently Morgan Edge had somehow managed to be more of a thorn in their side in the new timeline, having figured out a way to give himself superpowers. He had gone full supervillain and made a play for taking over National City before they had been able to stop him. 

Maxwell Lord had also turned back up in National City a few months earlier. So far he hadn’t been tied to anything nefarious, but it seemed inevitable that they would find out he was up to something sooner or later. 

Of course, not everything had changed as a result of Kara’s trip. Brainy had still opted to stay in the present and he and Nia were now dating, much like in the original timeline. And Winn had gone to the future just like before. And a good number of the more minor villains and threats had turned up just as before (though most were apparently easier to manage thanks to the insider knowledge Kara had shared). 

Eventually the on-screen Kara finished her recap. “And so that brings us to you. Well to us. We aren’t sure what will happen when you show up again. If nothing had changed, you’d have just returned to the time and place you left. You’d be back in the DEO lab with Brainy and Alex. But the future was changed. So much was changed.”

On-screen Kara fidgeted with her glasses as she continued, “We aren’t entirely sure what will happen when you return to the future… to the present to you. Apparently when you make as many changes as we have, a lot of different things could happen when you pop back into 2019. It could be that we stay as just one person, my memories and your memories merging. It’s also possible you might just pop into the world and suddenly there will be two of us flying around. But, according to Brainy, by far the most likely scenario is that you’ll basically overwrite me when you show up again in 2019. And… well, if you’re watching this video, then I guess he was right.”

The on-screen Kara picked the photo album back up again. “I think that’s why I started making these photo albums. Sure, I can store it all my photos in the cloud, but when you know you might cease to exist at any moment, there’s something about having tangible proof that you matter. To have something you can hold in your hands, you know?” Kara had always liked the physicality of images. She had always had lots of photos. Photos on her fridge, photos on her wall, photos on her desk at CatCo, so she could relate to her other self. 

“In the study,” the recording continued, “There are like a couple dozen more of these. This one is kind of my ‘greatest hits’ album, but there just so much life to capture, you know? There have been weddings and new family members and just so much happiness these past few years.” 

Kara put the album back on the coffee table before continuing. “Okay, yeah, it sucks knowing that I’m probably going to cease to exist, but so many good things have happened, and so much pain was avoided. Like Lara, she’s got such a kind soul, you know? Which, I mean, I guess you don’t know that. You never got to meet the real Lara. What she went through in the original timeline… I… I’m just really glad that you spared her that. Even if that had been the only change, this would all be worth it to save her from that fate.” The on-screen Kara paused for a moment, gathering her composure before brightening back up.

“And that definitely wasn’t the only change. I got to marry the love of my life, Alex and Maggie made things work, and I have two delightful nieces! There are so many things to be thankful for.

“We don’t actually know how much time we have left,” on-screen Kara explained, falling back into a somber mood. “We could find out. It would be easy enough to figure it out from the phone you left Lena. We talked about it a lot, but Lena and I decided if we knew how long we had left, we would be constantly dwelling on it. That looming date would always be hanging over us. We still have an approximate idea of when, but at least we don’t have to count the days. It’s scary not knowing, but since there’s nothing we can do to stop it, it would be scarier to know, you know?

“So, I guess that’s my story. You can find anything else you might need by reading my diaries, looking at the photo albums or just asking someone. There’s very little you might want to know that Lena, Lara, Alex or Maggie couldn’t tell you…” Kara trailed off for a moment.

“Just… just take care of everyone, please. Make sure Lena doesn’t work too hard. And that she remembers to eat. And make sure you back-up Lara. She kind of takes after us when it comes to the whole rush into danger without thinking thing. I… I will be able to rest easier if I know everyone is okay.”

The video faded out for a second before coming back in. This section of the video must have been recorded at a later time as the location had changed, this time being filmed in what looked to be a bedroom, and her on-screen counterpart was wearing a new outfit. “Um, it’s me again. I wasn’t going to include this at first, but…” the on-screen Kara paused, clearly conflicted. “I want Lena to be happy. You aren’t me, and my Lena isn’t your Lena, but I’m not going to exist anymore and by changing the timeline, the version of Lena you knew never came to be. But, like you’re still me and she’s still her, it’s just that the last few years have been different. So…” the recorded Kara sighed.

“Rao, this is hard. I… I’m not asking you to take my place. As similar as we are, you aren’t me. You can’t just take my place. It would never work and it would just be wrong. But maybe one day maybe the two of you can make each other happy? I know you and Lena aren’t together in your reality, and for all I know, you haven’t even figured out you are in love with her yet, but trust me, you are. You decided to risk breaking time for Lena. You don’t do all that for someone you aren’t in love with.”

“She’s my best friend!” Kara retorted. “I just wanted her to be happy.”

“Let me guess,” on-screen Kara countered, “Right now you’re thinking ‘she’s my best friend,’ right? Lena and I were like that too. Alex and Maggie will be happy to tell you all about our ‘best friend’ phase.” The recording gave a wistful chuckle. “It took us a long time to figure it out too. But we got there, and maybe you can too.” 

The on-screen Kara huffed. “This is so weird, trying to get my alter-ego and my wife to fall in love. I know my Lena isn’t the same Lena you fell in love with. And you aren’t the Kara my Lena fell in love with. And who knows, maybe the two of you won’t even fit. I’m just asking you to be open to the possibility. So… just, please think about it. Okay?” With that the video came to an end. 

Kara just sat and stared at the blank screen for several minutes. She didn’t know how to process everything she had just learned. It was like she had made a wish on a monkey’s paw. The whole reason she had messed with the timeline was for Lena. And it had worked. She had saved their friendship and spared Lena a lot of pain. But now Lena couldn’t even be around her because she looked like her wife. 

“What am I supposed to do now?” Kara asked herself. Everything was better here except for Kara. Just by arriving in this new timeline, she had hurt Lena. How could she fix this when her very existence was the problem? 

* * *

“What the hell?” Kara gasped. One second she had been flying through the air, excited to be making it back home to her wife after a long day of Supergirling and the next, she was standing in the DEO as Brainy and Alex looked at her with concern. She felt her knees giving out from the sudden disorientation.

“Whoa,” Alex said, catching her before she could fall. “Are you okay?” 

“Did it work?” Brainy asked.  
“Did what work?” 

Alex explained, “Brainy’s program. Were you able to infect the L-Corp network with the worm?”

“Oh boy,” Kara sighed, hanging her head. The good news was that she hadn’t been erased from existence when the other Kara had returned to the future. The bad news was it seemed like she had been dropped into the original timeline. This was going to get messy. 

**Author's Note:**

> So as you may have noticed, this is planned to be the start of a series. A lot of the events Kara recapped on the recording will be getting their own story: Lena and Kara getting together in the new timeline, how Alex and Maggie end up starting a family, the new version of Red Daughter coming along and becoming part of the family, how Kelly and Lucy meet and end up together, etc. And of course, there will also be a story or two dealing with the immediate aftermath of this story, with the two Karas being stuck in the wrong timelines. And maybe some other stories set in this universe as well.
> 
> The stories won't necessarily be written in linear order, but each should be standalone enough that they can be read in any order anyway. I promise there will be lots of fluff and the angst will be kept to a minimum.


End file.
